Lorde knows when new album will be ready
Joel Little accepts every award, accolade and acknowledgment of hard work with humility.
The 33-year-old music producer remains gracious in victory, admitting that ‘‘the novelty never wears off’’.
‘‘Awards are really nice, it’s great for us just to be recognised,’’ he said, on the back of his Best Producer win at the Vodafone New Zealand Artisan Awards on Thursday night.
Little’s story of success is hardly an overnight one. The musician worked tirelessly in a band that were ‘‘pretty good, but still never won any Tuis’’ for years, before his Grammy-winning years came into fruition.
‘‘I wouldn’t say I’m even one of the best producers I know,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve got producer friends who are really talented. I think with me, I just try to work harder than anyone else.’’
On October 20, Little took home both the Massey University Best Producer and Best Engineer awards, this time for his efforts on brother-sister duo Caleb and Georgia Nott aka Broods’ sophomore album, Conscious.
He won the same accolade in 2014, for his work on Lorde’s break-through debut Pure Heroine.
‘‘At first it was just a lot of really, really bad songwriting,’’ he laughed. ‘‘And I don’t think it was until we wrote Free that (Broods and I) figured out what is was that we were trying to do. I’m really proud of Conscious and how hard we worked.
‘‘A lot of the time, it feels like we’re all siblings, like I’m the big brother in many ways,’’ Little added. ‘‘We all get along, and we all feel like family anyway.
‘‘They come over, hang with the kids, it’s good – they’re great.’’
In the past few years alone, Little has worked with the likes of Lorde, Sam Smith, and Ellie Goulding. He mentions he’s just finished working on a project with Swedish musician Tove Lo and would ‘‘love to work with Katy Perry’’.
Little acknowledges how busy he sounds, but admits he ‘‘has moments’’ here and there to take a minute to relax.
‘‘I do stop,’’ he laughed. ’’I take the weekends off and spend time with my kids and they’re great. I think the most I’d take is three or four days at a time – any more than that and I’d start to feel antsy.
‘‘But we’re heading back to New Zealand for Christmas, which will be really good. I have my moments.’’ When asked when fans can expect a release date for Lorde’s long-awaited second album, the producer gave very little away.
‘‘I honestly couldn’t say,’’ he said. Little added that he’s not producing the Grammy-winner’s follow up album, but collaborated on tracks.
‘‘I guess (the new album) will be ready when she feels like it’s ready,’’ he said. ’’I’ve worked with her on this one, but she’s worked with a lot of different artists as well. When it feels ready, she’ll know.’’
On the back of 2013’s Royals, Pure Heroine soared on the international music charts. Suddenly, Little had penned a Grammy-winning song. The experience, he said, was ‘‘an insane’’ ride.
‘‘It was a really gradual thing. It’s so hard to explain. It started when we had 10,000 likes on SoundCloud and we were like ‘oh yeah, that’s great’.
‘‘Then some famous artist would tweet about it,’’ he said. ’’The entire thing was crazy, suddenly you’re at the Grammys, so yeah, everything was crazy, all the time.’’
‘‘I think second albums are always harder,’’ he added. ’’Because you start off comparing to what you’ve already done. An element of that you want to continue with [for your fans] but you want to do something new, something different.’’
‘‘I don’t know if you feel the pressure externally exactly – you try not to think about it, really. And then you get to a level where it feels good. If you’re excited about who you’re working with, you know, it’s exciting.’’